I don't own Naruto :3
Chapter 2
Sasuke woke up in a strange bed. After a couple of moment's confusion, he figured out what had happened. He had lost his grip, fallen and gotten himself and Sakura-chan hurt. Naruto-jiji must have taken him to the hospital and told his mother what had happened.
He looked around to find a snoozing nanadaime Hokage in the seat next to his bed. The man sat back with his nose to the air and was quietly snoring.
Dobe…
Sasuke's eyebrows creased, he would never call Naruto-jiji that… it just seemed disrespectful- well more disrespectful than 'Naruto-jiji', anyway. The more he thought about it though, the word, 'Dobe' seemed more and more fitting of the blonde man beside him. With this realisation came an increasing urge to call him by it; it would be like a nickname, his more rebellious side of him argued and won. After swallowing and taking a deep breath, Sasuke spoke, his sore ribs causing his voice to crack a bit, "Dobe, wake up!"
The Hokage shot up the moment the first word left Sasuke's mouth, "Sasuke!" he called looking around frantically.
Though he lay before him, Sasuke couldn't help but get the feeling it was not him the man was calling for, though part of him yearned to snort at the man's reaction. "Dobe." He said again.
Naruto turned surprised to see his best friend's grandson- the boy who looked exactly like his name's sake did when he was that age, the boy who had just sounded so much like him Naruto had thought that the past seventy years had been just a long, long dream and looked at him as though he was seeing him for the first time.
"W-what did you just call me?"
Dobe
"Dobe!" Sasuke searched the elder's face for any signs of approval, suddenly scared that it would adopt an expression not unlike his father's when Sasuke was in the same room as him.
Instead, a slow smile spread over Naruto's face, "You little brat! You're becoming more and more like your grandfather with each passing day-dattebyo!"
The boy found himself smiling in reply. Anyone else would have thought comparing the boy to the notorious rogue of the Hokage's generation an insult but to Naruto, it was a praise he would not give lightly.
"Your mum said she'd be back to check on you in about an hour or so…. You want me to tell you a story?"
Sasuke tried not to let himself sound over eager, "Hn."
Naruto chuckled, "OK, you asked for it; here's the story about the great Sasuke Uchiha, the stunningly beautiful Sakura Haruno (that was her name at the time) and Konoha's most unpredictable ninja, Naruto Uzumaki's first, accidental, A-class mission! It all started with the Daiyamo's wife's cat-dattebyo…."
Sasuke closed his eyes and imagined he was the Sasuke from the story- something he had always found easy to do with stories that included his grandfather. When Naurto-jiji got to Sasuke's favourite part of the story; the part where Sasuke and Naruto saved their teacher from the infamous missing-nin, Zabuza, he could clearly see in his mind the water prison though he had never seen the jutsu, he could feel the weight of the giant shurikan in his hand, despite never having held one before….
His mind has this ability to fill in the blanks in the stories about the Hokage's rival and best friend and even went as far as to supply him with alternative views of how the stories went, where Sakura was not as much a great kunoichi, where Naruto was the class clown and where his name's sake, Sasuke Uchiha, was not quite as noble as the Hokage made them all out to be.
Despite all this - or perhaps because of it, it was all so clear and vivid and familiar, it was almost like instead of a story young Sasuke had heard a thousand times over it was more like… a memory.
When his mother, a nurse at the hospital came in, it took Sasuke a moment to move his eyes from the story teller in the room. She smiled as her son impatiently asked the Hokage to continue his story and missed the silent conversation going on over his head between the two adults in the room. Not wanting to worry her son, she merely shook her head and signalled that they would talk later.
"Mother! Stop it, I'm fine!" Sasuke groaned as the dark haired woman fussed over him again.
"A broken wrist is hardly fine, dear. I don't know how you managed to avoid worse injury…. Hokage-sama-"
"I keep on telling you, Ame-chan, call me Naruto. We're practically family-dattebyo!"
The nurse smiled and shook her head, "-Could I ask you to watch Sasuke for the rest of my shift?"
"Mother," Sasuke interrupted in a small voice, looking around, "Where's father?"
Ame smiled sadly at her son, "Your father is very busy, dear… but you know, he was really worried about you. How about I cook a big dinner tonight and we'll invite all your brothers and sisters and I'll make sure your father comes too."
"Will Naruto-jiji come too?"
The two Uchiha looked over to the Hokage, their eyebrows quirked in question. Naruto chuckled, it would seem that Uchiha mannerisms are naturally acquired upon obtaining the surname, be it by marriage or birth. Seeing as the mother-son pair were still waiting for a reply, Naruto smiled his biggest smile and said, "I wouldn't miss it for the world!"
Dobe….
The next couple of hours involved looking over paperwork- though he was getting to spend time with Naruto-jiji, the man was still the Hokage and couldn't get out of his obligations. Eventually, the blonde Hokage gave up and sighed while running his hand through his hair before turning to look at Sasuke. The pair stared at each other for a couple of moments before smiling.
"Come, I'll teach you how to move across the rooftops of Konoha without giving every adult in it a heart attack!"
Dobe….
"Hn, Dobe…."
"Brat."
Naruto gestured for Sasuke to follow him out an unbroken window and onto the roof outside. After a slight hesitation, the boy joined him and waited for the Hokage to speak again. He didn't notice that standing on the uneven, high-up surface had come to him as naturally as if he had been doing it in years.
"We'll take the rooftops to your house. We should be there in time for the big family dinner! I wonder if Ame-chan has cooked up some ramen…" Naruto trailed off and looked down at the child beside him; the boy's feet were placed well and his legs were sturdy despite the drama of the morning, despite this, he was awfully pale.
Sasuke was too busy trying not to gulp as he looked in the direction of his home to reply to the man. He took a deep breath before looking up at his elder and nodded. A Cheshire cat grin that had become infamously associated with the Hokage greeted him. Sasuke felt a calm come over him from some unknown place in the back of his mind. He felt a small blush spread across his face as he took the hand Naruto he offered.
The two took a couple of steps back before running and leaping off the edge of the roof onto an electric wire before sprinting off in the direction of their dinner.
They were met at the door by Itachi Uchiha's disapproving face.
Father….
"Father." The boy greeted.
The raven hared man looked down at his youngest child and frowned as he noticed the new bruises that adorned the boy's uncast arm, his legs and face. It would seem that the reports he had heard about his son and the village leader clambering over the rooftops of Konoha had been true. Noticing his company, he refrained from scolding his youngest and instead greeted the man at his door with a nod.
"Hokage-sama."
"Now, come on 'Tachi-chan, why don't you call me Naruto-ji like the good old days-dattebyo?"
"I doubt it would be appropriate for Konoha's chief of police to refer to the Hokage as 'Naruto-ji', Hokage-sama." Itachi shot back.
Naruto muttered something about the man before him not being cute anymore, "I hear Ame-chan is cooking us all up a feast tonight, do you need help setting the table?"
"It is quite alright, Hokage-sama, setting the table is Sasuke's job.
"Even better," said Naruto jovially, "Come on, Sasuke, we'll do it together! After all, they do say that two pairs of hands can set a table faster than one-dattebyo!"
Naruto winked at the boy when he opened his mouth to protest and made his way to the kitchen, deciding that the room would be easier to set up and clear away. There was also the added bonus of the room not being anywhere near as stifling as the formal dining room.
Sasuke padded in after him and went over to hug his mother, he watched with a small smile before coming over to fetch the cutlery.
"Ok, Sasuke! Let's get this table set; I've been looking into domestic jutsu and I think-"
"There will be no jutsu performed in my kitchen, domestic or not, if I can help it Hokage-sama" Sasuke's mother smiled, brandishing a wooden spatula in her hand threateningly.
Naruto chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. For just a moment, he was replaced with the image of a much younger version of himself in Sasuke's vision. Blinking the image away, Sasuke started getting stuck into setting the table while Naruto joked around with Ame Uchiha.
Once they had set places for the whole family, Sasuke smiled happily. While he had no uncles or aunts, he had two brothers and a sister he rarely got to see as they had moved out of the house years ago- his eldest brother had even got married the year before and his wife was now expecting. As they had never attended the ninja academy, they had little to talk to him about but they were always more willing to listen to his training stories than his father.
His mother told the duo to take their places and went through to tell the rest of the family to come through. Itachi frowned at the fact that Naruto was not sat at the place of honour1 but said nothing. The rest of the family sat in their appropriate places at the table when he motioned for them to take their seats.
The beeping of the rice cooker broke the silence that had settled upon them and as Ame went over to start serving the food, Sasuke's eldest brother, Akihiro, smiled and said, "Well, it has been quite some time since we have all sat down together at the table like this! How have you all been?"
Conversation started, Sasuke sat back and watched Naruto carefully. Seeing him in this family setting somehow suddenly felt out of place… In fact, he himself was starting to feel uncomfortable with all the company which was strange because family was one of his favourite things.
Until Itachi….
Chasing the strange thoughts away, Sasuke chuckled at the Hokage singing praises to his mother as she brought him a bowl of ramen like he had hoped for. He was about to comment on how ridiculous the scenario was when he noticed his father frowning at him from across the table.
Who is he to look at me like that? I am Sasuke Uchiha-
Eyebrows furrowed, he did his best to ignore the agitated thoughts seemingly popping up from nowhere. Why had he thought that? The man was still his father, frown or not, and as still needed to be given respect….
But why was his father frowning at him? He found the answer to his question once he tuned back into the conversation Naruto was having with Akihiro.
"-And, the other day, when I was visiting the academy, I saw his shuriken practice. All he needed was a little direction before he started throwing like a natural-dattebyo! And! And, just before! You wanna know how we got here? We took a rooftop route! Never have I seen someone so young-"
"Hokage-sama, with the greatest respect," Itachi started, "You know well my thoughts on the Ninja arts. They have been a curse to this clan and, quite frankly a curse to the world. I take no pride in partaking in them in my youth and have raised most of my children accordingly. Sasuke still hasn't been disciplined for what happened this morning and yet you lavish him with praise?"
Before Naruto could reply, Sasuke's second brother intervened, "Father, Naruto-sama, how are the preparations for this year's chunin exams? I hear that strains between the daiyamo of Rain country and Sand country have increased since last year…."
Does that idiot not know that politics are not a dinner topic or am I completely surrounded-
Sasuke groaned and stopped himself again. These rogue thoughts were taking more and more presence in his mind and he couldn't understand why.
Fortunately, at that point, dinner was interrupted by the sudden appearance of one of the hokage's personal ANBU.
"Sir! Your presence is required at the hospital!"
"Saukra!" Naruto stood up quickly, "What's happened?"
"I'll explain along the way!"
As the two ninja left the room as abruptly as the ANBU had come, Sasuke couldn't help but get the feeling that everything was going to go terribly wrong.